


Cipher

by englishable



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 02:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5725540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/englishable/pseuds/englishable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>FN-2187 decides not to think of it as a name, because obviously it isn’t. He prefers to think of it as a code.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cipher

…

When he’s young – or young according to those numbers in his holofile, anyway, alongside his height and weight and vital signs at 90% capacity – he decides not to think of it as a name so much as a code he can crack.

Cryptanalysis isn’t a huge part of their training, exactly. Any locked door is to be immediately and uncritically blown off its hinges: place muzzle in direct contact with barricade, angle downward at 45 degrees, pull trigger, repeat if necessary.

But it’s not a name, and it won’t ever be a name, because you can’t really love or hate or miss a person called FN-2187. 

So here’s what FN-2187 comes up with instead:

_Two_ is generous, a number of compromising division which leaves nothing left out or left over. O _ne_ stands itself up straight, tall and unbent, despite the immensity of statistical odds it must contain.  _Eight_ has no beginning or end, its parts joined in the middle like two crossing orbits. _Seven_ is the side to a triangle, because triangles are the strongest shape, designed to redistribute forces evenly so that no side has to bear any more weight than its companions.

And that’s how FN-2187 knows, without a single drill or order or protocolary dictation, that he could never let anything happen to the men of his squad.

He just doesn’t have it in him.

…

_(“Hey, wait, are you actually – Medic? Medic, have somebody come over here and give my friend a nice ‘welcome back,’ would you? Oh, and can I – thanks.”_

The anesthesia in his blood makes everything sound as though it’s being spoken underwater, or drawn up from the bottom of a well, but he still knows that voice in an instant.

Poe Dameron scrapes his chair closer and waves a blithe, greeting hand.

_“All right. I’ll, ah, I’ll just start by asking the usual ice-breaker questions now, and we’ll save any important ones for the experts. Can you tell me your name?”_

Without effort or hesitation – why should there be? – FN-2187 offers his answer.

_“My name is Finn.”_

_“Ah-ha!”_ Poe claps that hand down onto Finn’s uninjured shoulder and keeps it there. “ _You’re damn right it is.”_ )

…


End file.
